Reflections
by CR-Rookie
Summary: Short fic set after the end of the Magic Mirror arc of the anime, told from the perspective of Shion Hibiki as she readies herself to take the bus out of town, all the while reflecting on what she's lost and what she could yet gain.


"I'm still no good at this" Shion Hibiki muttered to herself as she made her way towards the bus station, her eyes wet with tears that she was trying her best to contain.

The orange haired 14 year old girl had very recently said her last goodbye to two of her dearest friends, Kiyo Takamine and his Mamodo partner, Zatch Bell. She had only known the two of them for a couple of days, had only gone anywhere near them because she could see that Zatch was a Mamodo like her own former partner Nya, and they'd only stuck together due to Kiyo and Zatch having been drawn into the conflcit over the Magic Mirror of the Mamodo World just as she and Nya had been, but in that short amount of time, they'd grown close to her heart and now she had to leave them behind, not knowing when or even if she'd ever see them again.

" _Why did I choose to leave like this_?" Shion thought to herself. Before she left her friends and their neighborhood behind, she'd told Kiyo that she felt that if she stayed there longer, she might start to become too dependent on Kiyo and Zatch to assist her in times of trouble or solve her problems for her, which would negate the promise she'd made Nya to get stronger all on her own. But now, arriving at the station, Shion was begining to doubt if what she'd told them and told herself was really the truth. Maybe she wanted to move far from the place where she'd lost her best friend, far away from the people who were there with her when she'd lost her best friend, the people she'd dragged into her personal situation, inadvertedly setting things up for the tragedy in doing so. Perhaps she wanted absolutely nothing to do with the battle to decide the Mamodo King, and wanted to find some place in the world untoched by Mamodo and their spellbooks. In this sense, maybe Shion wasn't being so strong after all. Maybe this was just her final act of cowardice and weakness, but one that was necessary in order to get her standing firm on her feet again. Or Shion might just have had too many thoughts then could be sorted out as long as she was tying herself down to her friends and her school and that place that she and Nya had so enjoyed. " _I'm so messed up, even I don't fully understand myself_ ", thought Shion, gritting her teeth a bit as she did.

Shion thought back to the middle school she'd attended for only one whole week, and the class she'd transferred into. She could remember conversing with many of her classmates but she never felt like she really got to know any of them sans Kiyo, and in all that time they'd never even met the real her. Virtually every single boy in her class had been infatuated with her, but since they spent their time attempting to impress and woo her rather than actually trying to befriend her and know her, Shion felt nothing for them. Shion then remembered Suzy Mizuno, her exceptionally odd, klutzy and airheaded classmate who was one of Kiyo's closest friends and had been transparently jealous of Shion for the time she'd been spending with Kiyo, who Suzy seemed to have feelings for. " _Well, Suzy's probably laughing her butt off at me right now_ " thought Shion, a slight smile coming to her face at the thought. Suzy had always been stubborn about not losing her precious Kiyo-kins to the cute new transfer student, even declaring as much out loud on more than one occasion. So Shion just leaving town and losing any possible claim on Kiyo's heart just like that was surely an amusing outcome for her. " _Heh. I hope she's happy with her victory. And I hope she's happy with Kiyo for a long time afterwards. That girl really deserves it._ " Shion thought with a self-depriciatory grin on her face. In spite of Suzy's bouts of jealousy and competitiveness, Shion really liked that fruit loving oddball, and could tell that she had actually sort of liked her too. Maybe Suzy would miss her after days of her being gone? Shion supposed she should probably some day find a way to write to Suzy, and Kiyo, and Zatch, to let them know how she's doing. _Some day_...

Then Shion started to wonder where she could possibly stay now and how she was going to make any sort of living situation work. Beforehand, she'd been getting by through either calling some family friends to provide extra money if what she had wasn't enough to cover the rent in the apartments or motels she was staying at, or by conning people out of their money in whatever scam she and Nya could think up. On some occasions, she'd used the power Nya possessed as a Mamodo to threaten others into paying for her stay at a rental house of her choosing, but those were only for when she was desparate. But now Nya was no longer with her, and the family friends she had in touch had probably grown tired of sticking their necks out for her at this point. She had enough money for bus fare and at least enough after spending that to pay for a stay at a motel, but she'd then be running low on cash that she'd need to afford anywhere else to stay, not to mention anything good to eat and drink. Who, then, could she turn to? Where could she possibly go to start making an actual living for herself? Shion supposed she could just look into getting a foster family or maybe even getting adopted into another family, but that would require letting more people in to her life than she was comfortable with.

Like a cat, Shion was reasonably self-centered and cautious around others. But she had been all too trusting of people who treated her with kindness and generosity, like she was with Kiyo and Zatch...and Dr. Hakase and Grisor. Shion hadn't wanted to judge a book by it's cover when it had come to that insidious looking pair. The elderly disgraced scientist and his gnome-like Mamodo partner had promised her and Nya that they could make their wish of staying together forever, free from the Mamodo King battle that threatened to claim Nya's spellbook and send him back to the realm from whence he came, come true by using the power of the complete Magic Mirror. Grisor had even claimed that he'd sought the Mirror for himself so that he could live a quiet, peaceful, domestic life away from the storms of battle, which he seemed doomed to lose given how weak and unskilled he was, but, having overheard Shion and Nya's plight, was willing to give up his chance at this in order to end their suffering. And Dr. Hakase put so much faith and trust in Shion's capabilities, often giving her compliments, showing admiration for the strength of her and Nya's bond, and offering to be a guardian to her and pay for all her needs going ahead in life after the three pieces of the Mirror had been found and the Mirror been reassembled.

But every word out of the duo's mouths had been a lie. They only wanted the Mirror for it's power, which they could weaponize for their own selfish gain. They'd used her and Nya as their own personal wind-up toys that could retrieve the shards for them, and strung them along with empty promises of keeping them together. But not only had they no intentions of keeping their word, they in fact brought about the exact opposite of what they'd promised. Grisor's fire spell set Nya's book ablaze, and Nya was gone forever, returned to a world to where Shion could never follow him. " _They were heartless, predatory monsters..._ " After this betrayal, how could Shion possibly trust anyone who came into her life? How could she believe any kind words or ideal sounding promises that she'd hear from anyone? She knew that there were truthful, friendly, good-hearted people too, like Kiyo and Zatch. But the likelihood of finding people like them wasn't very certain for Shion. Not right now.

The bus was in view when Nya drifted into Shion's thoughts once again. " _What would Nya want of me now? How would he want me to respond to my current situation? Would he really have faith in me to be as strong as I've promised to be_?" Shion took a deep breath and gave a soft, bitter laugh under her breath. " _I'm not sure what good it is to even think about this. If Nya were here with me right now, I'd probably let him drag me to wherever he thought would be best suited for us. Back when we were together, it was always me leading him around and dragging him with me to where I thought we should be, never really doing anything for him. But boy would that change if I got him back. If...he was here with me now..."_ Shion couldn't stop the tears from rolling down her cheeks at this point. She bit her lip and tried to keep from shaking, wiping away the tears as thoroughly and fast as she was able to just as the bus had arrived and passengers began paying their fare to get on board to be transported out of town.

Shion's turn came as she had calmed herself enough to take steps forward, forward towards the start of a new period in her life. As she reached into her pockets for the money she'd been keeping, she heard a very familiar mewing sound that caught her unawares and made her heart stop for a second. A small gasp escaped her lips as the girl turned to her side and saw a small white cat pacing the floor of the station. It was a real cat rather than a Mamodo with a ressemblence to one, and was seemingly a stray. Shion stared at it for what seemed like a whole minute, and the cat turned it's head, it's eyes meeting her's. In the cat's eyes, Shion saw a look that she knew all too well - it was the look of loneliness. Of sorrow, of longing, of loss. It was a look that had been on her face for days after she'd lost her parents. A look that had left her once Nya came into her life, and only returned to her once Nya left her. Nya had saved her from her loneliness, and had also helped her grow and find a resolve, a resolve to strengthen her as a person and inspire her to seek happiness. But this cat standing before Shion now was not like Nya - it was like her, or rather how she used to be. " _So, does this mean I have to...?_ "Shion thought to herself " _...Nya_?"

"Bus will be shut and leaving soon, little lady. Do you have enough fare for it or not?" Came the voice of the station worker. Shion snapped out of her daze and turned her head to the man. "Huh? Oh...yeah, I have enough." she replied, pulling the money out of her right pocket as she did "It's all right here." "Good thing." the man said "I take it you got distracted by that stray over there?" Shion paused for a moment, then walked over to the small cat and picked it up, with surprisingly little resistance. "Actually, sir, he's not a stray" said Shion with a bright smile on her face "He's my pet cat. His name's Myu, and he's going with me on the bus. He's an important member of my family, you see."

A friendship lost was not a door closed. It was an opening for a new friendship born, and a new chapter in the life of Shion Hibiki began.


End file.
